The subject matter disclosed herein relates to a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft and, more particularly, to a single engine, asymmetrical VTOL aircraft.
Aircraft missions often require VTOL capability that is combined with long range and endurance and can be very demanding. Conventional configurations of such aircraft are designed primarily for efficient forward flight, for efficient vertical lift or a poor compromise solution that permits both forward and vertical flight. Alternatively, some configurations include tilt-wing or tilt-rotor features that allow tilting of the fuselage with respect to the nacelles and have VTOL capabilities, long range and endurance but pay a high penalty in terms of complexity, higher empty weight and other inefficiencies.
One particular configuration is a rotor blown wing (RBW) configuration where a hybrid aircraft can fly as a rotorcraft and as a fixed wing aircraft. In such cases, a single engine capability for the aircraft may be warranted based on mission requirements, engine availability and operational benefits of a single vs. a twin engine arrangement. Normally, however, the single engine would be located within the center fuselage section of the aircraft and thus would require a center engine underslung configuration or a center engine coplanar configuration to transmit power to both engine nacelles. In each case, the weight impact can be relatively high due to added drive system components.